Historic tours offered to Incheon, Jongno

The Royal Asiatic Society is running historic walking tours around Incheon and Seoul over the next two weekends.

The Incheon excursion, which takes place Sunday, will start in Baedari, an area that has recently attracted artists and some historic school and missionary buildings.

The tour will move to the historic city center, stopping by Freedom Park and examples of architecture from the late 19th century and the colonial period.

On June 22 there will be a separate tour of the Jongno area in central Seoul, starting with Jongmyo, the shrine to the Joseon Dynasty kings.

The tour takes a more modern turn next with the Seun Sangga Shopping Center, the first mixed-use residential and commercial building complex in Korea, and then a nearly completely intact hanok development in Ikseon-dong, built by Jeong Se-gwon (1888-1965).

Going via Nagwon-dong, famous for its rice cake market, the tour will end at Tapgol Park, home to an ornate 15th-century pagoda and the site of the public reading of Korea’s Declaration of Independence on March 1, 1919.

The Seoul excursion begins at 1 p.m. by the entrance to Jongmyo and the Incheon tour begins at 1:30 p.m. at Dowon Station, Exit 3.

The cost of the tours is 20,000 won for members and 25,000 for nonmembers. Reservations should be made via royalasiatickorea@gmail.com with name, contact info, and membership status.

(paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)